Roof for railway freight cars



Nov/9, 1948. T.-DESPOTAK|S ROOF FOR RAILWAY FREIGHT CARS Filed March 28, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 I E /0/2 W/Z/O INVENTOR. 757g fleapoakai B T. DEsPoTAKls Y 2,453,307 Q I Nov. 9, 1948.

ROOF FOR RAILWAY FREIGHT CARS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 28, 1947 INVENTOR. 76 Bee aid/v45, BY 75/ f Patented Nov. 9, 1948 ROOF FOR RAILWAY FREIGHT CARS Tony Despotakis, Hyde Park, Pa., assigner to Standard Railway Equipment Manu acturing Company, Chicago, II!., a corporation of Delaware Application March 28, 1947, Serial No. 737,819

3 Claims. 1

The invention relates to a roof for a railway freight car and has for its object to provide such a roof comprising metalic roof sheets extending crosswise of the car with the meeting sides thereof formed and capped to provide a strong seam construction in beam action between the opposite side walls of a railway car, which construction is weatherproof and so arranged that the roof sheets and caps may be easily assembled or disassembled in case repair or replacement of a roof sheet or a cap becomes necessary.

A further object is to provide such a seam con struction to help resist the distortions of a car in vertical and/or horizontal planes in service and to attach such a seam construction to the opposite side walls of a car to aid in such resistance.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my roof applied to a car.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged longitudinal section through my roof.

Figure 4 is an enlarged section through the side plate of the car and also showing the roof sheet in section and the cap in side elevation.

Figure 5 is a side elevation of Figure 4.

Figure 6 shows an end of the cap by itself.

Figure 7 shows an end of the roof sheet by itself.

As shown in the drawings the roof comprises a plurality of roof sheets 2 extending crosswise of the car and formed with depending end flanges 3 secured to the vertical element 4 of the side plate 5 by the rivets 6.

Each roof sheet 2 is formed with upstanding side flanges I 0 which when the roof sheets are applied to the car are a substantial distance from the corresponding flange 10 of the adjacent roof sheet, as shown in Figures 3 and 5. Each flange is preferably formed with a horizontal reflange I I which overlaps the reflange of the adjacent roof sheet.

An inserted channel-shaped cap I 3 straddles the upstanding flanges ID of the adjacent roof sheets and the reflanges H thereof. The cap I 3 terminates in a depending end flange I 4 which closes the ends of the spaces l2 between the flanges I|ll of adjacent roof sheets. The

' flanges of the channel-shaped caps l3 are welded to the depending flange l4 thereof, as indicated at l5, to form a closed end for the cap. The depending flange l4 extends downwardly and is secured to the side plate by the rivet IS.

The depending end flange of the cap is extended laterally (see Figures 5 and 6) to overlap the end flanges of the two adjacent roof sheets to aid in bracing the car against distortion of the care due to service movements thereof.

To secure the flanges I ll I and adjacent roof sheets together and to the cap I3 I provide a plurality of spaced horizontal rivets l8 provided with ferrules I9 to assure good rivets. (See Figure 3.)

Such a seam structure provides a strong beam between the opposite side walls of the car to support any load imposed thereon and to resist the tendency of the side plates to come together or go apart due to service movements of the car, and, furthermore, forms a good brace against diagonal distortion of the car.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A roof for a railway car having spaced side plates each comprising a vertical element and a substantially horizontal element, said roof comprising metallic roof sheets disposed crosswise of the car and formed with depending end flanges secured to said vertical elements, respectively, each roof sheet formed with upstanding side marginal flanges which are spaced a substantial distance from the corresponding flange of the adjacent roof sheet, said upstanding flanges each formed with a horizontal reflange which overlaps the reflange of the adjacent roof sheet. inverted channel-shaped caps straddling the upstanding flanges of adjacent roof sheets said caps termimating in depending end flanges which close the ends of the space between the flanges of adjacent roof sheets and extend downwardly and are secured to the vertical elements of the side plates, and means to secure the cap and adjacent roof sheet flanges together.

2. A structure defined in c1im 1 including a plurality of spaced rivets extending through the cap and the flanges of adjacent roof sheets and a ferrule surrounding each rivet which extends between said adjacent flanges.

3. A structure defined in claim 1 including the depending flanges of the caps overlapping the de TONY DESPOTAKIS.

No references cited. 

